Fury
by Quaxo
Summary: How did Goren and Eames manage to get back to Major Case after their dramatic exit in Loyalty pt II.  Part of what I fear may be a series?


So, of course, after you leave a fandom (because the writers botched the whole damn thing and blahblahblah) you get sucked back in when the world is restored to order and of course there are only 8 episodes left to finally get some quality resolution. This is naturally the time you start writing fic again.

Don't own anything, obviously, characters are properties of NBC Universal and the brain children of Erbe and D'onofrio. I'm just playing in the sandbox with their toys.

This is the first installment in a series of fics that will have me racing the series finale. Wish me luck ;D.

The story starts just after the end of Loyalty pt II.

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><p>It takes until the parking garage below 1 PP before anger consumes every nerve of her body, leaving her unable to do anything, even something so simple as open the door of her car – <em>How dare he do this? How dare he try to force my hand – for what? Another piece of brass to add to my uniform? How dare he think I'd be <em>_**shallow**__ enough to sell out my partner for a chance at being captain? This isn't __**right**__ –_

She eventually calms enough to enter her car – and spends another forty-five minutes trying to compose herself enough to venture out into the city traffic. She turns the radio on and off all the way home, trying to distract herself from her thoughts and then turning it off when it doesn't seem to do a damn thing for her.

It wasn't _right_, it wasn't _ethical_, and it damn well wasn't becoming of the NYPD that generations of her family had served and spilled their blood for. She'd concede that Bobby had given the brass plenty of reasons to question his sanity – he'd given her plenty as well – but there were _channels_ for chrissake…

It takes her two days before she is calm enough to call her union representative – she knows the only way to play this is calm, cool, and matter of fact. Being emotional will only lead them to accuse her of being hysterical – or worse – and this is too damn important to screw up. She's only going to have one shot at this, and every move she makes is going to have to count.

She doesn't call Bobby, doesn't tell him what she's planning – he'll just tell her no – or get his hopes up only for it all to fail. A small, vindictive part of her that she's never been very proud of wonders how he'll feel now that he's the one left blind in the dark while his partner machinates around him.

There isn't a whole lot of evidence to support her claims – no taped phone calls, no memos – only the circumstances surrounding her promotion, Bobby's immediate dismissal, and her subsequent resignation two minutes later. She's going to have to call on her reputation as a member of a family of police officers, as a first-grade detective, as one of the highest case closers in Major Case, and as the widow of a cop. She's a goddamn PR nightmare and she knows it, and she's going to make sure the Chief of Detectives knows it too.

Unsurprisingly the response from her union rep and IAB is painfully slow – She makes sure to call in once a week 'just to check' on their progress – and letting them know that she's not going to walk away from this. She fills her days taking care of her father, watching her nephew, and generally taking a long-deserved break from being everyone but Alex Eames.

She doesn't hear from Bobby – and she doesn't try to contact him. For one, if the Chief of D's has any of his little feelers out spying on her there's no way he can accuse her of being in cahoots with him. That, unfortunately, does look better for her case. Secondly, she's tired of being the one having to reach out and be the bridge. Maybe their partnership didn't mean so damn much to him after all if he can't be bothered to even pick up the phone and _call_ his partner for the last 12 years.

It is not until she drops the magic words, "Faith Yancy", in her discussion with her union rep while the newspapers are plastered with reports of a couple of narcotics detectives busted for corruption that she finally gets her audience with the Chief of D's and IAB.

The Chief is obviously pissed when she walks in the room, a snarl barely hidden from his lips. Her union rep is already seated, and the IAB officers are watching them all carefully. Everyone makes their introductions, they've all spoken on the phone, just never face to face.

"Nice of you to join us, _Ms._ Eames," The Chief grinds out as she walks towards her seat, and part of her wants to correct him – it's _detective_ – but she forfeited that title – _temporarily_ – when she'd resigned.

"I wish this could be under better circumstances," She says in a neutral voice as she takes her seat.

"You've made some very serious accusations, Ms. Eames," The IAB officer, Marks – a man in his fifties going gray at the temples and thinning in the back – says, opening a thick case file. Good, that means they've been doing their research.

"Something very serious happened, Detective Marks," She replies. "I merely did my duty and reported it."

"You've accused the Chief of Detectives of coercement and bribery," Detective Lane – a strict looking woman in her 30s – responds, a perfectly plucked eyebrow raised up in skepticism.

"That is one interpretation of what happened." It's the only interpretation of what happened, but the more neutral she appeared about the whole incident the more convincing she'd be.

"Let's start from the beginning," Lane sighs, opening up the case file and pulling out a typed statement on official letterhead. "What happened on the afternoon of May 3rd of this year?"

"I received a call from the Chief of Detectives informing me that I was being promoted to temporary captain of the Major Case squad, full captain once I took my exam, replacing Captain Ross. I was informed that my first order as the new captain was to relieve Detective Goren from his position on the squad."

"Did he give you a reason for why he wanted you to dismiss Detective Goren?"

"He said that Detective Goren was becoming too much of a liability for the department."

"Did Chief Moran ever directly say that your promotion to captain of the Major Case squad depended on Detective Goren's dismissal?"

"No," She resists the urge to grit her teeth. _Of course_ Moran wouldn't be stupid enough to bluntly offer her a quid pro quo, he wasn't chief of the detective squad for nothing. "He said that it would be 'best for _everyone_ involved' if Detective Goren was no longer with the department."

"I see, what did you interpret that to mean, Ms. Eames?"

"That if I did not fire Detective Goren that I would not become captain."

"Yet you didn't refuse to comply with Chief Moran's request… you did fire Detective Goren."

"I thought he deserved to hear it from a friend, instead of whoever would come after me."

Someone who thought Bobby was some sort of whack job, someone who might have enjoyed the task, someone who didn't understand Bobby at all… It had to come from her. They'd been partners for years, they were… friends of a sort, even if their relationship had grown strained over the last three years as Bobby started his downward spiral.

"Chief Moran, why did you request that Detective Eames dismiss Detective Goren?"

"I think Ms. Eames will admit that Detective Goren's mental stability had decreased substantially over the last few years. He'd experienced several traumas while on the job – the Wallace cases, the Brady case, the Gage cases – not to mention his unauthorized mission to Tates correctional facility. I cannot deny that Detective Goren made some great contributions to this department over the years, had an excellent solve rate, but he was becoming more erratic. There had been more complaints of him brutalizing suspects, including throwing one man off of a ferry and into the harbor. His devotion to what he saw as his duty made it impossible for Detective Goren to see the risk that he posed to himself and to others, including his coworkers and civilians. It was for his own safety that he needed to be dismissed from active duty."

She focuses on sitting as still as she can, fighting down the blood rushing to her face in a righteous fury. Of course, the best lies are always passing acquaintances with the truth. If Moran's actions were born out a desire to help Bobby, she'd hate to see what Moran would do to someone he actually hated. There was still that ring of truth though - She could not deny that Bobby had become more difficult – that he'd done some things that were more than just stretching the intent of the rules, they were tearing out whole goddamn sections of the book to get what he wanted.

"Detective Goren has not always followed the rules to the letter, and he has displayed some inexcusable behavior at times – but he has also done an incredible amount of good. For all his 'whack job' ways, as some in the department have chosen to call them," Here she glares at Moran just a little bit, "…in spite of whatever may be the most politically expedient or easiest solution to a case, it has never stopped him in his pursuit for the truth. He needed our help, and in thanks for all the hard work that Detective Goren put in over the years, countless times he has put all of himself on the line for the department, he got thrown out instead."

"Detective Goren was given counseling after the Tates incident—"

Her union rep, the IAB agents are just watching the interplay between her and Moran now, content to be spectators in their duel of wits… which is good, because she's going in for the kill strike now, although it's a bit more of a Hail Mary, and she just has to hope it lands true.

"How many counseling sessions did he actually get before they turned into rendezvous points between him and the department for the Tessarossa sting? Was he offered any counseling after the department allowed him to be painted as a rat? The department seems quite happy to take credit for Detective Goren's results and then turn around and punish him for getting them."

"Goren could have requested the assistance psych services at any time -" Moran grits, and she knows she's getting to him. "He was becoming an _embarrassment_ to the department—"

"Mike Logan cold-cocked a city councilman in front of cameras and the worst he got was busted back to Staten Island," She inhales slowly. "Detective Goren should have been reprimanded, but he should have received counseling for his outbursts long before they became such a problem, and why that didn't happen only Captain Ross can answer. That is the way the system is _supposed_ to work, from what I remember."

She feels a small bit of shame throwing some blame on a dead man – she even thinks she knows why he didn't report Goren when he should have.

They all – Ross, brass, even more foolishly, herself – had thought that she held Bobby's reins… that she could stop him when it really came down to it… all the while he was deteriorating right in front of their eyes.

She was so tired of having to be the one to try and hold him together long enough to get through another case.

"Interestingly," Detective Marks interjects as the silence grows ponderous as she and Moran glare at each other across the table. "Mr. Goren expressed surprise that anyone would file a complaint on his behalf when we interviewed him. I believe he said," there's a rustle of papers as Marks flips through the file, before pulling out a transcript from the middle of the pile, "'I understand why I was dismissed, take full responsibility for my actions, and accept the department's decision to terminate me.'"

"This has put us in a bit of a pickle, as you can understand… Captain Hannah, the new head of Major Case, has also filed a complaint about the circumstances regarding Detective Goren's dismissal and Detective Eames' resignation shortly thereafter," Lane drawls, pulling out another stack of papers.

She has no idea who Captain Hannah is or why he would choose to get involved, but she can taste victory as she watches Moran's face grow ruddy with frustration and outrage.

"The only question is," Everyone turns as an African-American man in a deep blue, crisply pressed suit enters the room. "What are we going to do about it now?" He takes a chair from the wall and drags it to sit beside Eames' union rep. "Marcus Jackson, Mr. Goren's representative, sorry I'm late," He says with a predatory grin.

She's ushered out into the hall shortly thereafter, while Moran, IAB and the union decide the fate of her career – and Goren's.

If Goren's rep is here, then the man himself can't be far behind – she spots him further down the gloomy hallway sitting on a bench, one knee jangling nervously as his gaze darts about the room.

She is tempted to leave – but it wouldn't do anything. She approaches, unsure of how he will react… unsure of how she will react to his reaction – if she was like this now, what the hell was she going to do when they were on a case together – if they were on a case – what had she been thinking –

"I'm mad at you," He says quietly as she stands beside him – and there's a faint playfulness in his eyes that she hasn't seen in ages – hadn't even realized it'd gone missing until she saw it again.

"I've been fine, how are you doing, sorry I didn't call," Sarcasm is thick in her voice even as she tries to puzzle out what the hell Goren has to be mad at her for – before she loses her temper.

"You should have taken the Captain's job. You'd have been great at it."

"You think I'm so shallow after all these years that I'd just throw you over just so I could wear another couple of bars on my uniform collar and get a couple extra bucks in my check?"

"N-no…," The words are confident, but they way he avoids her glare, rubs the back of his neck, tells her everything.

"It wasn't right, what they did. I figured it was about time I collected on all those dues I've been paying to the union."

Goren looks at her then, studying her intensely for a moment and she steels her nerves and stares right back.

"Thank you… Eames, I don't know how I can—"

"Repay me? Start by agreeing to whatever they make you do to get your badge back."

The words come out without thought, but she knows in her gut that she agrees with them. Goren looks a little surprised, and for a moment she can tell he's pissed because he knows as well as she does that getting his badge back is going to involve quality time on the shrink's couch. Tough, she's not giving on this one, not any more.

"I want you to follow through on what you said in your interview and take responsibility for your part in what happened. I know the last few years have been rough, but you can't let it interfere with job, not anymore."

She watches his head bob, his eyes focused on the floor as he mulls over the consequences of their bargain. How ironic that someone who frequently peered into the psyches of others would be so resistant at taking a peek at his own.

"You're right. I'm sorry…"

"Of course I'm right, I'm your partner."

She can see the corners of his lips twitching upwards, and for the first time since the Tates' fiasco she thinks there might just be a hope that this doesn't end in a catastrophe.


End file.
